S&P 500 HITS RECORD HIGH: Here's what you need to know

The Westminster Kennel
Club's Dog Show is in New York this week.REUTERS/Mike Segar

Stocks went nowhere while the yield on US Treasury bonds surged
higher on Tuesday, the first day of a holiday-shortened trading
week. By virtue of a higher close, the S&P 500 made a new
record high, hitting 2,100 for the first time.

First, the scoreboard:

Dow: 18,047.6, +28.2, (+0.2%)

S&P 500: 2,100.3, +3.4, (+0.2%)

Nasdaq: 4,899.3, +5.4, (+0.1%)

And now, the top stories on
Tuesday:

1. Wall Street is really
excited about Apple's car. Reports have suggested that Apple is
working on a car, which according to The Wall Street Journal will
look like a minivan, and in a note to clients on Tuesday, Cantor
Fitzgerald analyst
Brian White asked if Apple's car could be the next iPhone.
"In our view, as more 'things' become computers," White
wrote, "we believe Apple is very well positioned
to leverage its heritage in the industry developing hardware and
software innovations together across a vast digital ecosystem,
creating easy to use, aesthetically pleasing
products."

2. The
big move in markets on Tuesday was in US Treasury yields. The
10-year yield moved to north of 2.1% while the 30-year also
spiked to 2.72%. These are up from year-to-date lows of 1.65% and
2.25%, respectively, the latter serving as a record low for the
Long Bond.

3. In our latest
most important charts feature, Brean Capital's
Peter Tchir noted that the 10-year Treasury looks about as
unattractive as it has in some time. And so perhaps Tuesday's
rally shouldn't have come as a total surprise. "Right
now the combination of low projected income and HIGH volatility
makes the risk/reward of owning Treasuries very dangerous," Tchir
wrote.

4. The New York Fed released
its
latest household debt survey, which showed household debt
rose by 1%, or $117 billion, in the third quarter. This is down
from the $12.68 trillion peak reached in the third quarter of
2008. "Although we’ve seen an overall improvement in
delinquency rates since the Great Recession, the increasing trend
in student loan balances and delinquencies is concerning," the NY
Fed's Donghoon Lee said.

6. Morgan Stanley's Martijn
Rats said
on Monday that there are signs the oil market is beginning to
rebalance itself and could reach a real equilibrium in the third
quarter of this year. But as the FT's Tracy Alloway
found out recently, people are still really sure oil prices
are going lower.

7. On the economic data front,
homebuilder sentiment in February declined to 55 from 57, a
decline that was attributed to the harsh winter weather in the
midwest by Pantheon Macro's Ian Shepherdson. The New York Fed's
latest reading on business activity in New York showed that
activity expanded in New York, but the outlook for conditions
over the next six months fell to its lowest level in two
years.